Ele lectio ions approach are you ready? Fact-checking for ed - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Ele lectio ions approach – are you ready? Fact-checking for ed educators and fu future voters Mikko Salo, Kari Kivinen, Pirjo Sallinen & Valentina Uitto Brussels, 13.11.2018 Fight disinformation with media literacy event organized by Evens Foundation

Fact-checking for educators and fu future voters 1. Introduction 2. Description of mis-, dis- and mal-information; 3. Information about the key principles of journalism and fact-checking; 4. How to use fact checking approaches in learning contexts; 5. Workshop: sharing good practice and tools for educators on how to activate young and future voters to become active and voter literate citizens, who are taking part in discussions about elections with critical thinking, argumentation, and media and information literacy skills.

Welcome to the FactBar EDU for "voter literacy" and participation • From 2014 Faktabaari European Elections Fact-checking campaign to FactBar EDU voter literacy project for critical thinking and participation with HRSK teachers and community • HLEG: fact-checking, medialiteracy and elections (win – win) • Transparency, non-participation, shared concern and co-operation • From misinformation to information disorders to replace ”F* ke news” • Primary- and secondary school students with extensions to life – long learning via educators and materials • The event present a first occasion to evaluate and further develop this new media literacy stream within an open source FactBar EDU community with you.

Description of mis-, dis- and mal-information Mis-information - false information is shared, but no harm is meant. Dis-information - false information is knowingly shared to cause harm. Mal-information - genuine information is shared to cause harm, often by moving information designed to stay private into the public sphere.

MISLEADING INFORMATION The misleading information which emerges in fact-checking can be divided into three different categories: • defective information or ‘mistakes’ ( mis information), • deceptive information or ‘hoaxes’ ( dis information) and • damaging information or ‘gossip’ ( mal information).

Information about the key principles of journalism and fact-checking • Fact-checking denotes a process of research which strives to gain a thorough understanding of the truthfulness or likelihood of, for instance, a claim made in public. • Fact-checking has branched out beyond journalism, however, and plenty of civic activism has developed globally in conjunction with it. • Specific codes of principles have been developed for fact- checking (e.g. IFCN) which seek to distinguish between proper fact-checking (which aims for objectivity) and other investigative journalism dealing with facts.

True , untrue or ‘50/50 The fact-checking processes of Faktabaari yield three kinds of conclusions in relation to the checked claims: true, untrue or ‘50/50’ . Faktabaari uses a so-called traffic light scale. • A true claim holds true in the context and there are sources to support it. But since fact- checking deals with very specific contexts, the claim can still be untrue in another context. • An untrue claim is clearly false, i.e. the source material and the expert statements are at odds with it. The claim can be either a deliberate lie or simply a careless slip: fact-checking may not be able to pinpoint the motivation behind the claim. • A 50/50 claim includes factual information but it cannot be regarded as completely accurate. This is especially common in the case of over-simplified views. For example, if an expert states that the claim cannot be either verified or refuted or that it is considered ambiguous or the source material is conflicting, the verdict is usually 50/50. So it is not a matter of being ‘half true’, but rather about not being entirely verifiable or certain. • There are also claims that simply cannot be checked or the verification wouldn’t be meaningful from the point of view of public debate.

Elections approach – are you ready? Fact-checking for educators and fu future voters Download voter literacy tool-kit from www.faktabaari.fi/edu

• The aim is to • provide students with voter literacy skills, so that they would be able to make their decisions based on facts - not on disinformation or mal-information. • to create a new educative and inspiring voter literacy materials and teacher training kits for educators. • The scope is to activate students – the future voters – to take part into the European Parliament 2019 election discussion and follow-up empowered with critical thinking, argumentation, and media and information literacy skills to resist mis- and disinformation.

In Information & & knowledge Students should have basic knowledge on • how the political system and democracy work. • political parties of the country. • the role and prerogatives of the EU and the Parliament. • what political campaigning is like in practice. • ethical principles of journalism and fact- checking

Skills Students learn argumentation and debating skills and they learn • to use analytical and critical thinking in practice. • to search data and evaluate media sources independently • to recognise and evaluate arguments • to clarify unclear information and paraphrase arguments • to compare mutually opposed claims about reality and defer to their own judgment when evaluating contradictions

Attitudes and and experiences The objective is to enhance the pupil’s identity as an intelligent and critical individual who is capable of independent thinking and students will • establish a sense of participation and belonging in democracy. • demonstrate different ways of personal involvement.

True or or false check-list? • Who is the author ? • Can you find a name or reliable web address ? • To whom it is made for ? ???? • Where has it been published first and to which target audience? • What does it really say ? • Is it advertisement, piece of news or opinion of someone? • Why is it made ? • On what information it is based ? • Can you find references?

Fact-checking process in in a school 1. Select a claim that you want to check 2. Examine the claim using different sources and check the facts • Who, where, when and what said? 3. Write a fact-checking report based on the discoveries 4. Present your findings to the rest of the class for the final verdict (“ True , “ False ” or “50/50”) 5. Publish and share the results, e.g. as a blog text or a presentation paper

Listing and evaluating the evidence in a simple way as an exercise to teach objective and argumentative thinking and how to bypass one’s own biases What does Source A say about the claim: In favour Against Both What does Source B say about the claim: In favour Against Both

Online check-list Check headline & pictures • Very emotive, powerful or provocative • “Too easy” black -and-white simplifications  If yes, stay alert and continue Check the content • Anonymous? No Sources ? • One-sided views on topic? No alternative viewpoints?  If yes, leave it. If no, continue Towards your own judgement • Why author seeks your attention or action? • Check the main claim with source you trust?  You feel not cheated? So, go ahead, share good content!

Election panels at schools • Student candidates present their own campaign videos. • Public participates in the debate with red and green signs .

Workshop: Role game – Party presentation wit ith a tw twist 1. Meet and greet your fellow party members • RED – Anti-EU party 2. Create a program for your party • Short and compact: 5 points: promises • BLUE – PRO-EU party /claims/proposals • Green – Nature party • One of the five points should be mis- information, one should be dis-information 3. Your party needs a catchy slogan! 4. Prepare to introduce your winning party programme to the other teams you recognize the mis- or disinformation the other teams are feeding you? 5. Discussion about the excercise.

Welcome to build a FactBar EDU voter literacy approach from our bottom-up pilot • Towards a European project (building on mind over media and #femfacts) • Mikko Salo mikko@faktabaari.fi • Kari Kivinen kari@kivinen.net • More: www.faktabaari.fi/edu @FactBar • desk@factbar.eu IFCN Fact-Checking Network’s code of principles • https://ifcncodeofprinciples.poynter.org/